In just a few days my bud and business partner Terri Trespicio and I will be headed to the Speak to Sell conference with Lisa Sasevich in Florida. Whoo hoo – can’t wait for some sun! It’s been a long winter.

After the conference my husband and I are heading to Miami for a few days of vacation and a chance for us to check out for a little bit! (Plus to celebrate our wedding anniversary – 9 years!)

As exciting as this all is, it means I’ve got several lists going all at once.

Lists for the conference

Lists for my vacation (altho I’ll still be working)

Lists for everything I have to catch up on before I go

I feel a bit like I’m drowning in lists.

It’s times like these that I have to step away from my usual tactic of just getting things done and zoom out a bit. – Otherwise I get too wrapped up in the small stuff and lose sight of the bigger picture.

One of the things she taught in this creativity workshop was how to shift your focus. And it involved buying magazines! (My guilty pleasure!)

The idea is to go to a store and get yourself a magazine you would never normally read, which for me could be on something like golf or surfing or the National Geographic. But for you it could be anything that you wouldn’t consider yourself to be interested in.

Now when you read that magazine you have to be a completely objective outsider. The actual content is not that important to you so you can focus on the way they get their message across. How do they engage with their readers.

So how does this help your list making efforts?

It can give you loads of idea for your own creative output and how you actually get things done. Can you be more creative about the way that you outsource? But also – stepping outside of our usual routine (it’s scary, I know) can actually spark great ideas and allow you to get more done. It will actually make you more productive and help utilize parts of your brain that might have been a bit sleepy til now.

They say you can travel all around world, but you can never escape yourself. Well that’s not strictly true. The magazine exercise allows you to take a break from your own mind and usual way of thinking and take a vacation in someone else’s hobby for a bit – and who knows what you might take away!

Try it out and let me know what you think in the comments below.

https://listproducer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ListproducerLogo.png00Paula Rizzohttps://listproducer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ListproducerLogo.pngPaula Rizzo2018-05-13 18:42:032018-05-15 17:46:09An Easy Exercise to Help You From Drowning in Lists

There isn’t an expert, an author, or entrepreneur I know who wouldn’t love to give a TEDx talk. Or to do more speaking in general.

The problem isn’t opportunity (events alone are more popular than ever–and there are tons of TEDx events happening all over the world, year round).

The problem certainly isn’t passion or desire. You’ve got that in spades.

The problem, for most people, is they aren’t sure what it takes to create or land a TED-worthy talk. And they aren’t sure what to do theirs on.

But I know someone who does know—and she’s going to be sharing it in her first-ever live event.

Terri Trespicio is a brand advisor, award-winning writer and top-rated speaker with two TEDx talks under her belt—one of which has 3.6 million views to date. I met Terri when she worked as a magazine editor and since then we’ve become good friends and business partners! We created Lights Camera Expert together, which helps experts get media attention.Read more

Some of you want to start your own business or are looking for your next big thing. Am I right?

I know this because you’ve told me through the years as you’ve followed my journey from full time producer to side hustler with my book Listful Thinking to full on entrepreneur with my media coaching and training business.

It’s been 6 months since I left my full time job as a senior health producer at Fox News Channel and believe me – I don’t have it all figured out.

But what I do know is that finding experts to give you shortcuts is the way to go.

I was invited to speak as a media expert at this year’s UpLEVEL Together Online Summit because getting media for your business can give you a credibility boost and bring eyeballs your way like nothing else.

It’s the global online summit for early-stage women entrepreneurs, I know many of you fall into this category or know someone who does!

From April 23rd – 27th, experts (including me) from around the world will be pouring their knowledge and practical tips into YOUR business! (or potential business)

Some pretty incredible women entrepreneurs are featured who have accomplished a lot in their careers, too. Here are a couple things you’ll learn:

– How to build a brand you love!

-How to create a scalable business model!

– How to get camera ready so you can maximize opportunities!

– How to get booked by media! (that’s my piece!)

– Why it’s important to develop a powerful company culture early!

– And much more!

This is an event you’re not going to want to miss! Afraid you can’t “be there”? Don’t worry!

The UpLEVEL Together Summit is a FREE, VIRTUAL online conference!

You don’t have to travel – the interviews come to you to you! They’ll be broadcast over the web, so you can watch from the comfort of home.

You can watch every speaker’s interview for 2 hours after it goes live. See the agenda for more details.

She has over a decade strategic marketing experience and has helped organizations of all shapes, sizes and industries draw out their unique gold, as well as, understand where they’ve been holding themselves back in the marketplace.

Over the years I’ve spoken to a wide variety of people about their lists, some who always cross every item off their lists and some struggling to make lists at all. But there is one thing we all seem to have in common when it comes to lists – guilt over not getting it all done.

Even when it’s a small item I haven’t crossed off my list I feel compelled to find some reason why. I couldn’t get milk because I left a meeting late or I didn’t go for a run because it was too cold this morning.

The excuses we make always find something else other than ourselves at fault.

It’s not because we are necessarily trying to shift the blame, but because our brains like stories. We understand concepts and ideas better when they are presented in narrative form. So when we miss an item on our list we want to have a ‘story’ as to why it’s still there.

These stories can sometimes have positive effects on our lives, just by believing you’re a more lucky or more confident person you can make it so. But the stories we tell ourselves can also hold us back. We might avoid trying something new or taking on a difficult challenge because we believe we aren’t good enough or smart enough.

Once you release that it’s mostly in your head you can start to break out of these negative behaviour patterns. Read more

I recently wrote a post on the importance of making time for myself now that I work from home. When your home is also your office it’s not easy to make as clear boundaries with your time. In the comments section of that post a friend and regular reader, Sandra Keros, wrote that she likes to plan mini destinations to get out of her head and out of her apartment. What a great idea!

Since I loved it so much I got in touch with Sandra to talk more about her mini destinations and what she does. This is what she had to say:

“As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get caught up in thinking about and working on your business around the clock. From time to time, a little recreation is necessary to give yourself a break, have some fun, and “recreate” your thinking on projects you’re working on.Read more